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+4 moreJAMES HALL
7-9 minutes
How bassist Darryl Jones holds the `greatest' rock 'n' roll band together

+4 more
JAMES HALL

JUSTIN TANG
The Rolling Stones' Ron­nie Wood, left, and bass player Darryl Jones. Jones, not­able for his soph­ist­ic­ated musical ped­i­gree — although not an offi­cial mem­ber of the band — has played with them for three dec­ades and per­forms a crit­ical cre­at­ive role within the group.

The return of the Rolling Stones with their first new music in 18 years has garnered head­lines around the world. New single Angry sounds fresh and vital, while forth­com­ing album Hack­ney Dia­monds is said to be their best since Some Girls (1978). Pub­li­city for the comeback has focused on the core trio of Mick Jag­ger, Keith Richards and Ron­nie Wood. But there's one long-stand­ing mem­ber of the band whose play­ing shouldn't be over­looked — bass player Darryl Jones, argu­ably the Stones' secret weapon.

Jones replaced Bill Wyman on bass in 1993, when the (almost) ori­ginal mem­ber quit after 31 years of being a Stone. This means by the end of next year, 61-year-old Jones will have played bass in the world's most fam­ous band for longer than Wyman ever did.

Jones replaced Bill Wyman on bass in 1993, when the (almost) ori­ginal mem­ber quit after 31 years of being a Stone. This means by the end of next year, 61-year-old Jones will have played bass in the world's most fam­ous band for longer than Wyman ever did.

Before join­ing the Stones, Jones was part of Miles Davis's band, play­ing on two of the jazz legend's albums and tour­ing the world.

He then joined Sting's band after he left The Police, play­ing bass on one of the world's most fam­ous bass player's debut solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles. He has toured with Madonna and Peter Gab­riel, and recor­ded with B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joan Armat­rad­ing, Rod Stew­art and many more. Richards has called Jones “one of the best bass play­ers in the world,” which is high praise. “He is the most solid cat. My solid left arm, you know,” Richards told a 2022 doc­u­ment­ary about Jones.

He then joined Sting's band after he left The Police, play­ing bass on one of the world's most fam­ous bass player's debut solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles. He has toured with Madonna and Peter Gab­riel, and recor­ded with B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joan Armat­rad­ing, Rod Stew­art and many more. Richards has called Jones “one of the best bass play­ers in the world,” which is high praise. “He is the most solid cat. My solid left arm, you know,” Richards told a 2022 doc­u­ment­ary about Jones.

Wood agrees. “Darryl adds a vital­ity and a vibrancy and a kind of prowess of musi­cian­ship that is on another level,” he told the doc­u­ment­ary Darryl Jones: In The Blood. Mean­while Jag­ger said, “I respect him greatly as a player, as a musi­cian, because I know he has got a great ped­i­gree.”

Jones's role in the band's music is far more com­plic­ated than it per­haps looks. It might seem that play­ing bass­lines that have been around for dec­ades is a rel­at­ively simple task for an accom­plished musi­cian. But this is to mis­un­der­stand the unique and slightly off-kil­ter musical chem­istry of the Rolling Stones.

Tra­di­tion­ally in a band, the drum­mer and the bass player meld to provide a solid rhythm sec­tion, a found­a­tion on which the rest of the band can lay their sound. Jones and Charlie Watts did this in the Stones but there was a catch: the jazz-lov­ing Watts always used to play just behind the beat. And Richards has always played his gui­tar in a lan­guid blues-influ­enced style that flits between rhythm and lead gui­tar and has always been char­ac­ter­ized by loose phras­ing.

Tra­di­tion­ally in a band, the drum­mer and the bass player meld to provide a solid rhythm sec­tion, a found­a­tion on which the rest of the band can lay their sound. Jones and Charlie Watts did this in the Stones but there was a catch: the jazz-lov­ing Watts always used to play just behind the beat. And Richards has always played his gui­tar in a lan­guid blues-influ­enced style that flits between rhythm and lead gui­tar and has always been char­ac­ter­ized by loose phras­ing.

It's an uncon­ven­tional setup. The bass player in the Stones must act as a kind of flex­ible glue, bond­ing these ele­ments together. Steve Jordan, who replaced Watts on drums, put it superbly when he said of Jones: “He has the per­fect amount of under­stand­ing to pull this very dif­fi­cult job off. He has got to con­nect the dots, but the dots can be in dif­fer­ent points at any given time.”

Jones first picked up a bass around the age of nine. He com­pleted a music course at Chicago Voca­tional High School, aged 17, before attend­ing South­ern Illinois Uni­versity in Car­bondale. He became a reg­u­lar fix­ture on the Chicago music scene. Jones has spoken about the import­ance of his High School musical train­ing: “I can't ima­gine any­thing that was more valu­able to me being suc­cess­ful as a musi­cian than the pub­lic school music sys­tem. I got three and a half, four years of basic­ally pro­fes­sional exper­i­ence play­ing in my high school orches­tra. So it was invalu­able.”

He said he first thought he might fit in with the Stones while listen­ing to their 1989 album Steel Wheels at around the time that Wyman left. “I thought, `I feel like the way I play could work with that.'”

He said he first thought he might fit in with the Stones while listen­ing to their 1989 album Steel Wheels at around the time that Wyman left. “I thought, `I feel like the way I play could work with that.'”

In his auto­bi­o­graphy Life, Richards says: “Darryl melted into the band real quick,” in typ­ic­ally lyr­ical lan­guage. “I do enjoy play­ing with Darryl; he's always pro­vok­ing me. We have tre­mend­ous fun on stage. You want to go there? Fine, let's go a little fur­ther. We know Charlie's got it nailed. Let's f--k around. Let's sling some hash! And Darryl's never let me down.” Jones said the con­nec­tion was “almost imme­di­ate.”

Why hasn't Jones been made a full-time named mem­ber of the band? In a 2016 BBC inter­view he said: “It has not really come up very often.

“Obvi­ously that would be a really won­der­ful thing for a per­son like me. I have been a sideman for more than 30 years now. I think most musi­cians, some­where deep down inside, even if they are sidemen or if they are hired play­ers, there is a desire to be in a band.”

(Pink Floyd's late key­board player Rick Wright was, for a while, a salar­ied musi­cian in the band rather than a “mem­ber.”)

Jones remains cent­ral to the Stones sound, even if he's seen less than the main mem­bers. Some­times, says Mat­lock, it's all about the fit. “There's an apo­cryphal story about Ron­nie going to audi­tion for the Stones (in the mid-1970s), and Jeff Back and Clapton were there, all wait­ing to go and have a play. And they said, `We're bet­ter play­ers than you, Ron­nie' and he said, `Aah, but I'm the right bloke.'”

Jones remains cent­ral to the Stones sound, even if he's seen less than the main mem­bers. Some­times, says Mat­lock, it's all about the fit. “There's an apo­cryphal story about Ron­nie going to audi­tion for the Stones (in the mid-1970s), and Jeff Back and Clapton were there, all wait­ing to go and have a play. And they said, `We're bet­ter play­ers than you, Ron­nie' and he said, `Aah, but I'm the right bloke.'”

Jones, clearly, is both the best player and the right bloke.

Vancouver Sun

26 Sep 2023

A12

Interesting article, with a clickbait headline. There are only three "band members" remaining now, but The Rolling Stones are composed of many other critical supporting musicians, especially for touring in major venues. The order of importance of the current supporting touring band members is debatable. I'd rate them in this order, not just in terms of music, but in terms of overall importance keeping The Rolling Stones going on tour: Chuck, Steve, Darryl, Bernard, Matt, and Tim. I won't argue with anyone rating Darryl higher than Steve or rating Matt higher than Bernard. Karl and Sasha are great supporting musicians, but more easily replaced and less critical than the others. Also, some of the supporting muscians are more important than Chuck regarding new music and recordings, but my ranking is based on the touring band.

Ronnie deserved to be added as a "member", probably before he officially was. The current band membership will only change by subtraction, not addition - and hopefully won't change for a long time.

I wouldnt mind Darryll getting the full bandmember treatment.
I like him alot.

Not one mention of Bill's playing, which was essential to the golden age of the group. The fact that he is not on one cut of Hackney Diamonds says it all. His playing is not essential to the group sound in the least. Never has been, especially like Bill's was. I'm assuming he was a good jazz player. There are a few great quotes by Keith showing that he knew exactly how talented Bill was. It don't mean a thing, cause he ain't got that swing.

The premise of that article is not a very good one. They are talking about a new album and how vital and everything it will be like. And then that - although Mick, Keith and Ronnie get the public attention - the "secret weapon" of the band is Darryl Jones, who, they seem to maintain, should get a full membership. But those two things have nothing in common. Darryl is not even on the album.

So the timing of article (and interview) to promote Darryl's significance cannot be much worse.

But still a nice read.

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023-10-03 13:13 by Doxa.

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24FPS
Not one mention of Bill's playing, which was essential to the golden age of the group. The fact that he is not on one cut of Hackney Diamonds says it all.....

The Rolling Stones have confirmed that former member Bill Wyman has played on one track of their newly announced album, Hackney Diamonds. From several sources.

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IGTBA

Quote
24FPS
Not one mention of Bill's playing, which was essential to the golden age of the group. The fact that he is not on one cut of Hackney Diamonds says it all.....

The Rolling Stones have confirmed that former member Bill Wyman has played on one track of their newly announced album, Hackney Diamonds. From several sources.

It's Darryl who doesn't play on any cut.

Yes that article falls completely flat with Darryl not appearing at all on the album, apparently he wasn't available ("on tour")...just like Don Was. The reality is that he hasn't come up with any bass line anyone can rememeber in 30 years so why would he be made a member. His answer to the question of why he hasn't become one is weird too "it hasn't come up very often", huh ? Did he bring it up ? If the Stones had, surely he would have signed on ?

It's also interesting that Mick says he respects him because of his "pedigree", not because of his playing ?

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I didn’t catch that Darryl wasn’t on the new album. This is surprising - I assume
it was schedule conflicts?

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swimtothemoon
I didn’t catch that Darryl wasn’t on the new album. This is surprising - I assume
it was schedule conflicts?

He was touring at that time.

Quote
IGTBA

Quote
24FPS
Not one mention of Bill's playing, which was essential to the golden age of the group. The fact that he is not on one cut of Hackney Diamonds says it all.....

The Rolling Stones have confirmed that former member Bill Wyman has played on one track of their newly announced album, Hackney Diamonds. From several sources.

It was poorly worded. I meant Darryl, the fact that he is not on one cut of the new album pretty much proves how essential he is to their sound. By the way I think Keith's bass on Angry is pretty damn good. Best they've had in some time.

We shouldn't read too much into this stuff.

The band has a long history of bass being played by whoever was present in the studio at the time. Didn't matter who played it so long as the record got made.

Bill never got precious about other folks playing the bass when he wasn't there.

A far as he was concerned it was just less work for him to do...bonus



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023-10-10 11:30 by Spud.

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Spud
We shouldn't read too much into this stuff.

The band has a long history of bass being played by whoever was present in the studio at the time. Didn't matter who played it so long as the record got made.

Bill never got precious about other folks playing the bass when he wasn't there.

A far as he was concerned it was just less work for him to do...bonus

I've read interviews where Bill said he didn't mind someone else tacking Bass on a song and then telling Wood “You're playing many notes Ronnie!” if someone had a better idea for a part, I don't think he minded, but I also remember him saying something along the lines of “You call the studio to find out what's going on & if your needed & the bands tells him, “Well we may just mess around today “then the LP comes out & you're only on 3 tracks”.